November Notes

Greeting, friends,

Things are going well here in Conway. Again, I want to start off by thanking you for your support of the work, both financially and through your prayers. We were blessed to receive some more support for next year from a family in Arkansas who recently read an article in the Christian Chronicle about the condition of churches in the Northeast. Every little bit helps. While we haven’t received as much as I was hoping for the upcoming year, I trust that God will provide for our needs as he has over this last year.

The church here is continuing to grow in spirit and strength, although our numbers haven’t really gone up yet. I am seeing more people getting excited about their place in the Kingdom of God. In fact, one of our ladies who had been sort of spiritually drifting last year mentioned that she had been gradually finding her bearings and stability since we came to work with the congregation. I believe with such increased spiritual strength, people will be more ready and willing to share their faith and the goodness of Jesus’ love with other people. It’s hard to share Jesus with someone when you aren’t secure in your own relationship with him. We are continuing to prepare for the Youth Rally in late February, and the Ladies' Seminar next spring. These will give the church a common goal to aim toward.

As far as other church related work, we are taking a month long break from our Friday night studies with several young couples because of many activities related to the holiday season. Linda is now volunteering not only at the Monday evening food pantry, but also with the “Angels and Elves” program, which gets local sponsors to provide Christmas gifts to children of needy families in the area. Linda is also going to start working a few hours a week at one of our member’s stores in an effort to get to know people. I am blessed to have such a wife who loves to get to know people and sees the importance of serving. As for myself, I (as well as several of our church members) am continuing to sing with the community chorus. We are looking forward to our upcoming concert next weekend. I am almost finished with my sermon series on the letter of Galatians, and it is helping many people to understand what freedom in Christ looks like, and how God’s power within us helps us to truly live the kind of lives we should. We are continuing our Wednesday evening question/answer period, with our focus currently being on leadership in the church and in the home.

We were blessed to have our daughter Sarah home for the Thanksgiving holiday. She and one of her friends came for the week. The first day there we got nine inches of snow, so the girls went out and played in the snow until it turned to rain. We enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving holiday here at the house with the girls. The next day we woke up to three more inches of snow, and we went out and got our Christmas tree. We had to shake the snow off of the trees to see what they looked like! We certainly live in a beautiful country, although you have to get used to having seven months of winter weather. My snowblower is ready to go to work!

Well, it’s time to wrap it up. I pray that your holiday season will be filled with good health, warm surroundings and lots of family or friends. I hope you enjoy the pictures, although after the leaves fall it gets pretty drab around here. God bless you all and we’ll be in tough next month.

Brotherly,

Leland and Linda